Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said Friday that the nation will respond to a North Korean request for fertilizer aid once it says how much it needs.

In a news briefing following inter-Korean ministerial talks in Pyongyang, Lee said Seoul plans to provide North Korea with as much rice and fertilizer aid as it did before the North’s nuclear test last October, but that the aid will be provided on a step-by-step basis.

Noting the early coming of spring, the minister told reporters that he believed the timetable should be advanced, adding that the amount of rice aid will be determined at an inter-Korean economic cooperation meeting in April.

Seoul is expected to provide Pyongyang with 150-thousand tons of fertilizer this spring, as it has the past several years.